News

Oklahoma City, Okla.-All good things come to an end, it’s just that the Rockford IceHogs can’t afford them to right now. The IceHogs had their eight game point streak (7-0-0-1) snapped on Tuesday night at the Cox Convention Center, 5-2 to the Oklahoma City Barons.

The IceHogs have had a flair for the dramatic on the road in 2012, making a habit of battling back from deficits. But a 3-0 hole was too much to overcome against Oklahoma City, the Western Conference’s top team.

After Rockford failed to convert on a five-minute power play early in the first period, Oklahoma City found themselves on the advantage of their own and capitalized. Josh Green set up Teemu Hartikainen in front of the IceHogs net and the winger flipped in his 14th marker of the season past Carter Hutton at 13:08.

In the second period the Barons tacked on two more tallies to chase Hutton from the game. Chris VandeVelde tipped a point shot from Bryan Helmer past Hutton at 4:41 for his seventh goal of the season to stretch the lead to 2-0.

Then Taylor Chorney made it a 3-0 game with his fourth goal on the season. The Barons d-man took a slap shot from the left point and it deflected off of the stick of Shawn Lalonde and under Hutton at 6:42.

Rockford stopped the bleeding with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 9:59. Peter LeBlanc one-timed a Rostislav Olesz pass past Olivier Roy for his 20th goal of the season to make it a 3-1 game.

The IceHogs deficit was reduced to 3-2 at 15:04 of the third period. LeBlanc picked off a Dylan Yeo pass on the left wing in the Barons zone and fed Olesz on a 2-on-1 breakaway and the winger hammered home his 12th goal of the season.

That’s as close as the IceHogs would get as the Barons deflated their comeback attempt just 15 seconds later. Chorney cranked home his second of the night off of an OKC faceoff by win Mark Arcobello at 15:19, beating Alexander Salak for his only blemish on the night.

Hunter Tremblay finished off the IceHogs with an empty net tally at 19:58.

Hutton was saddled with the loss after making eight saves on 11 shots while Salak blocked 13 of 14 shots in relief. Roy was solid in his first start with the Barons, turning away 36 IceHogs shots.

Next Home Game: Tuesday, March 20 vs. Hamilton. The Bulldogs are in town for the second and final matchup against the IceHogs in 2011-12. Game time is 7:05 p.m. Taco Bell Dollar Days continue Tuesday night with beers, hot dogs, soft drinks and companion tickets available for just one dollar a piece.

For every goal that the Rockford IceHogs score in 2011-12, IceHogs head coach Ted Dent will make a donation to children’s cancer research. BMO Harris Bank will also make a donation for every goal to the “BMO Harris Bank Goals For Grades”